At least 15 feared dead in Taiwan landslide

Rescue workers pulled 24 survivors from the wreckage of a mountain village in Taiwan yesterday after a torrent of mud and rock triggered by a typhoon buried the area, leaving 15 people feared dead.

Typhoon Aere, the strongest storm to hit Taipei this year, has killed at least 30 people in Taiwan and southern Japan, and destroyed nearly 1,500 buildings in mainland China, where almost a million people have been evacuated.

The typhoon has weakened to a tropical storm over the southern Chinese province of Fujian and is forecast to move west over Guangdong and Hong Kong in the next two days.

"It happened very quickly yesterday. In about 10 seconds, mudslides buried the village. They had no time to escape," said Hsinchu county chief Cheng Yung-chin.

He said 15 people were buried by the landslide, including eight villagers and three policemen. The government's disaster relief centre revised its figures to say two people were confirmed dead and 13 were missing.

Rescue workers dug through the wreckage of the aboriginal Wu Feng village in the northern county of Hsinchu, finding 24 survivors and airlifting them to safety.